et non sapientior

(CBS) — The warmest day of the year so far brings hundreds of mischievous teens to Michigan Avenue.

Police are calling it ‘mob action’.

CBS 2 is learning about multiple incidents in at least four different locations along the Magnificent Mile and in the Gold Coast, yielding a slew of arrests.

Things got pretty bad, very quickly with many innocent shoppers and tourists caught in the middle of a very chaotic situation.

Hundreds of teens littered Michigan Avenue and State Street near Chicago.

Things started to go bad around 6:00 p.m. Saturday, with teens purposely bumping into people, and causing fights among themselves.

Fifteen juveniles and two adults were arrested and charged with Reckless Conduct— a misdemeanor.
Community activist, Andrew Holmes witnessed some of the problems, while shopping with his family.

“You had a group of teens, close to maybe 500. They assaulted a Chicago police officer that was on a mounted on a horse and all of a sudden they assaulted a citizen walking the streets, just a normal citizen shopping and enjoying the weather,” said Holmes….

According to the SecondCity cop blog, the amazing thing is the rest of what Andrew Holmes ~ a COMMUNITY ACTIVIST, mind you ~ continued to say:

“I caution those parents if their child has been arrested … You need to think about your child. Just don’t say the Chicago police picked on your child, when we watched all the assault going on, especially by teen women.”

When your local apologist is telling you no apology will do, you got some problems.

And that was just the start of the criminal mayhem, which ~ SHOCKA! ~ might well not have been innocent skylarking gone awry on a beautiful spring evening.

…Sources tell CBS 2 that much of this activity was planned weeks ago through social media.

Imagine that.

No worries. The poster on the police blog is sounding spring-like and cheerily hopeful!

…This is the first warm weekend of the year – summer is going to be a fucking disaster.

MY kind a’ town, ChiCAgo is!

The WGN reporter (Here on the the Chicago Tribune) followed a group of 50 little ruffians yutes and EVERYBODY has the same sad face about it being only the first warm weekend…

As the debate rages on about “doing something to protect the children” in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting a lot of schools are rushing to spend many many thousands of dollars on camera systems, door locks and in some instances various types of ‘panic buttons’ to notify the police when something happens.

In other words, exactly the type of system that failed so tragically at Sandy Hook.

Passive, time-buying systems by themselves do not work because the police simply can not get there in time

Adam Lanza killed 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School and took his own life within five minutes of shooting his way into the building, State’s Attorney Stephen J. Sedensky III said in a statement accompanying the release of the warrants in the Dec. 14 massacre.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but probably not enough to suggest the labor market recovery was taking a step back.

Also, the U.S. economy expanded at a sluggish pace in the fourth quarter although a big gain in business investment and higher exports of services led the government to push up its previous estimate for growth.

The growth rate was the slowest since the first quarter of 2011 and far from what is needed to fuel a faster drop in the unemployment rate. It was, however, higher than the government’s previous estimate of a 0.1 percent growth rate.

“That’s not the type of reply I expect to receive from a state legislator,” Maxwell replied on Feb. 11. “I’m not a racist and I find your reply to be especially offensive considering the position you hold.”

At least he USED his government email, bless his little pointy head! One step up on most anybody in the White House.

…I thought I’d share something that absolutely shocked me back around the Inaugural, that I haven’t had a chance to put up. It’s a highly critical (oh, yes) piece about THAT fashion icon which appeared in our little men’s edition newsletter from Women’s Wear Daily. I finally had a chance to track down an online link to the thing and, as you can imagine concerning any piece ripping the exquisite Michelle Obama, the comment section is alight with oh-so-nasty venom towards Bridget Foley, author of said column. Ergo, my initial delight in said column’s sentiments must have been on the mark.

In the WWD print edition, it was titled (and emphasis, mine):

A Secret Disservice

One can just imagine the countless sets of soulful, eager eyes. “Pick me! Pick me!” they surely cried out in longing. But in a moment — make that two moments, one morning, one evening — hope died, and all but a few went back to their under-known, under-loved status.

How does Michelle Obama get a pass on the ridiculousness surrounding her inaugural wardrobe selections? The whole thing would be merely silly and undignified if it weren’t so disrespectful of the time and resources of others, some of whom have little of both at their disposal.

“DAWG!”, I thought. “Am I READING THIS IN AN INDUSTRY RAG?!?!” I’m sure I blinked a couple times.

It goes on for a few paragraphs of Inaugural fashion history and I can’t even say a real swipe at Laura Bush ~ also another surprise. But then DAMNED if she doesn’t go in for the kill on the over-the-top excesses/slobbering idolatry of the current ICONISH First Lady of ALL the Fashion WORLD the United States…

…You know the story: Isabel Toledo by day, Jason Wu by night and suddenly, Michelle Obama was patron saint of fashion’s emerging and offbeat. Four years later, Thom Browne and Jason Wu, again. But before Thom and Jason, many designers submitted looks. WWD reported more than 15 did so; the rumors go as high as 30. Submissions included pieces created especially for Mrs. Obama and clothes from current collections.

The First Lady wanted to keep her looks secret until the big reveal, OK. The inauguration wasn’t a wedding, so as far as we know, no bad luck was involved in letting the news out. But fine. Her choice. Yet why the secrecy about the designer? Why not a simple, elegant statement from Mrs. Obama’s office in advance of the events? “Thom Browne and Jason Wu have designed Mrs. Obama’s inaugural outfits. Mrs. Obama has requested that they decline queries from the press.” Would Browne and Wu ignore that request? Probably not.

…From the human standpoint, clothes should not have been solicited from so many people. That’s right, not brands, firms or houses, but people. Sketches, fine. Conversations, fine. But to have had so many designers put effort, resources and emotion into making clothes is just not nice. And 15 or more designers? What woman in search of an event dress has a short list of 15 favorites?

Mrs. Obama isn’t an indulged starlet primping for the Oscars, nor should she behave like one. Women everywhere have big events for which they select a single dress in advance of the moment. Some of those women and some of those events are high-profile. (See: Kate Middleton; wedding to presumptive future king.)

That Mrs. Obama will likely wear the clothes procured as inaugural options in the future isn’t the point. None will have the impact of those she chose for Monday’s events, nor of the clothes she wore early during the President’s first term; such is the sartorial downside of incumbency. At the very least, with five minutes of attention she could have cut the list to a couple of finalists.

As it was, Mrs. Obama’s fashion team needlessly disappointed and possibly misled many hard-working people, some of whom hoped vainly for a much-needed commercial boost.

For those still hanging in there, 2016 will be here before you know it.

Margaret McCollum and Oswald Laurence were married for 15 years
A 40-year-old “mind the gap” recording once heard across the Tube is returning to one station – so the widow of the actor behind it can hear his voice.

Oswald Laurence’s voice was used on the northbound Northern Line but was phased out until only Embankment used it.

Dr Margaret McCollum said she often uses the station and was devastated when “he wasn’t there” in November.

Savings accounts in Spain, Italy and other European countries will be raided if needed to preserve Europe’s single currency by propping up failing banks, a senior eurozone official has announced.

The new policy will alarm hundreds of thousands of British expatriates who live and have transferred their savings, proceeds from house sales and other assets to eurozone bank accounts in countries such as France, Spain and Italy.

The euro fell on global markets after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chairman of the eurozone, announced that the heavy losses inflicted on depositors in Cyprus would be the template for future banking crises across Europe.

Funny the things that the consortium of Big Government and Big Banking can do to an unarmed population.

Repeat after me: $19.2 trillion dollars is currently held by US citizens in 401k and other retirement accounts.

Do you really think the government doesn’t want to “help” you manage that money?

On Friday Brunswick Police Chief Tobe Green would not say if the shooting that killed a 13-month-old boy and injured his mother had an relation to gang activity.

…Police say the child and his mother were shot Thursday morning when they were taking a walk. Some believe that this could be in relation to gang activity. First Coast News took a look at the accused’s Facebook page, and there were several posts that associated Elkins with a group called Moneyville. One particular post used a code that we researched and found is related to the well-known street gang the Bloods.

We also found some YouTube videos with the group’s name. There is no confirmation that this is a gang or that gang activity had anything to do with this shooting, but Pastor Ken Adkins who is familiar with Brunswick’s crime and works with ex-offenders and ex gang members says it is possible.

Two teen boys arrested in shooting death of Georgia infant in stroller

Two teenage boys were arrested Friday in the shocking shooting death of an infant, killed in the stroller his mother was pushing in a coastal Georgia town.Seventeen-year-old De’Marquis Elkins is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, along with a 14-year-old who was not identified because he is a juvenile, Brunswick Police Chief Tobe Green said.

…West, wept Friday while she told The Associated Press that she pleaded with the gunman and a younger accomplice who approached her Thursday morning while she walked near their home in coastal Brunswick.

“He asked me for money and I said I didn’t have it,” she said. “When you have a baby, you spend all your money on babies. They’re expensive. And he kept asking and I just said `I don’t have it.’

And he said, `Do you want me to kill your baby?‘

And I said, `No, don’t kill my baby!”‘

West said the gunman fired four shots, the first into the ground. West didn’t see a shell casing ejected and she assumed the gun wasn’t real.

Then he fired at her head and the bullet grazed her left ear — she has a small scab and bruising there. He fired again and shot her in the left leg above the knee. “I didn’t know I was hurt.”

“The boy proceeded to go around to the stroller and he shot my baby in the face,” she said.

“And then he just shoved me when I started screaming and he ran down London Street with the little boy.”

In our rush to make excuses for the unfortunate among us, we have a developed a race of child predators with no souls or consciences.

I can’t wait to hear the piteous stories of this monster’s upbringing.

An active-duty Marine shot dead two fellow service members at a base at Quantico, Virginia, then barricaded himself in a building and killed himself, prompting a brief lockdown of the base, the Marines said on Friday.

The shootings took place late on Thursday near the Officer Candidate School at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, and all three people who died were identified as Marines, Marines spokesman Sergeant Christopher Zahn said.

…The Marines did not name the service members who died, pending notification of their families. ABC News quoted a military official as saying the suspect had been identified as a staff member at the cadet school, as was one of the victims.

ABC also said that the second person killed was a female Marine found dead in the barracks, but gave no further details.

Nope. The last thing you want when your country is bankrupt and you’re trying to calm international lenders so you can fleece themborrow even more money is for the Governor of your Central Bank to be named PANIC

(Reuters) – Russia rebuffed Cypriot entreaties for aid on Friday, leaving the island’s increasingly isolated leaders scrambling to strike a bailout deal with the European Union by next week or face the collapse of its financial system.

In Nicosia, the country’s biggest bank urged politicians to make haste and cut a deal with their EU partners as parliament considered proposals to nationalize pension funds, pool state assets and split the country’s second-largest bank in a desperate effort to satisfy those exasperated European allies.

The governor of the Central Bank, Panicos Demetriades, warned political leaders the country would face a disorderly bankruptcy on Tuesday unless they approved the bills, an official present at the talks said.

(Reuters) – Euro zone finance officials acknowledged being “in a mess” over Cyprus during a conference call on Wednesday and discussed imposing capital controls to insulate the region from a possible collapse of the Cypriot economy.

In detailed notes of the call seen by Reuters, one official described emotions as running “very high”, making it difficult to come up with rational solutions, and referred to “open talk in regards of (Cyprus) leaving the euro zone”.

The call was among members of the Eurogroup Working Group, which consists of deputy finance ministers or senior treasury officials from the 17 euro zone countries as well as representatives from the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The group is chaired by Austria’s Thomas Wieser.

Cyprus decided not to take part in the call, a decision that several participants described as troubling and reflecting the wider confusion surrounding the island’s predicament.

“The (Cypriot) parliament is obviously too emotional and will not decide on anything, if Cyprus does not even feel that they can attend the call it is a big problem for us,” the French representative said, according to the notes seen by Reuters.

…“If we started in 1960, and we said [that] as productivity goes up … then the minimum wage was going to go up the same … if that were the case, the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour,” the senator said, at a recent Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on “Keeping up with a Changing Economy: Indexing the Minimum Wage.”

The current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Ms. ****** wondered, in a YouTube video of the hearing posted by her staff: “What happened to the other $14.75?”

She answered her own question:

“It sure didn’t go to the worker.”

Ladies and germs, may I present FORMER UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR and now the (only!) Senator from Massachusetts…Elisabeth Warren. In action.

I get on the bus very early in the wee dark hours and I HATE, in a loving christian sense, naturally, when some idjit sits down next to me and pulls out an iPad or some such. The BLINDING BRIGHT LIGHT makes me feel like I’m in Gitmo.

No charges will be filed against a man who posted online a photo of his young son holding what appeared to be a military-style rifle, police said Wednesday.

In a moment of heightened sensitivity around guns and gun control, the brief saga had the makings of a debate starter between people who oppose guns and those who say authorities are overzealous about even legal weapons.

Police in Carneys Point, a town of 8,000 some 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia, gave their version Wednesday, days after the boy’s father, Shawn Moore, brought attention to the issue, saying that state child welfare workers and police in SWAT gear showed up at his home because of the online photos.

…Moore’s lawyer, Evan Nappen, said the problem is the idea that the government could respond to people talking about or with photos of weapons on social media.

“This is a shame because of the impact it has on a really good dad and his son,” Nappen said. “No one was in danger.”

Little munchkin was proud as punch in that picture and then the jackboots show up at the door thanks to some drunk-dialing snake-in-the-grass who’s probably terrified of L-shaped PopTarts and has a psychology degree.

KEEEE-rist.

We are so boned.

On the otherhand: Wait ’til the Monmouth County Animal Welfare types get a loada Claude’s WAISTLINE and the RAW CHICKEN THIGH PICTURES!!!! HUH? HUH?